Ol Doinyo Lengai - The mountain of Gods

I have climbed about 50 active volcanoes in various parts of the world, but Ol Doinyo Lengai has captured my interest like no other volcano ever has. As of 2005 I have climbed Ol Doinyo Lengai 10 times and have spent 100 nights camping at the summit craters. During my first visit on July 17, 1997, I went up and down in one day and spent about 4 hours in the crater. There was some very minor activity, but four hours is not long enough to have a very good chance of seeing an eruption. I decided that I wanted to spend several nights there to increase my chances of seeing some flowing lava, which is what I did twice in 1998 and once in 1999. The more time I spent on Ol Doinyo Lengai, the more fascinated I became. In July 2000 and July 2001 I organized camping expeditions to the crater for small groups of clients. In August 2002 my expedition, which included photographers, a film team, and a volcanologist, encountered hazardous camping conditions due to violent lava fountains and extremely rapid lava flows. Part of our camp was destroyed by lava and a Tanzanian guide was injured.

Volcano spotting! Now there’s a hobby I can appreciate. Oldoinyo Lengai is the only volcano in the world that erupts natrocarbonatite lava. It’s cooler than other types of lava and looks like black mud or oil during the day, but glows in a mysterious orange hue during night. It also the most fluid lava in the world… almost like water.

This was the volcano of the week at Volcano World. The report is by Frederick A. Belton.

Posted by api in Ambient environment